The Enduring Beauty
by rilery15
Summary: Her life was already a living Hell and he made it worse everyday. Can he atone for his wrong doings? Will she find the strength to forgive those who have hurt her?


Hi there! This is my first try at writing, so I hope that it's at least okay. Read on :)

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BPOV

As humans, we normally associate beauty with appearance or clothing, but this has me thinking now. Is beauty tangible? Can we hold it? I always thought it was, especially when I was younger.

In high school all I ever wanted was to be like the pretty girls. You know, the ones who have all the friends and wear all the prettiest clothes. That was my dream.

Now, I realize, that was a stupid dream. I shouldn't have wanted that. In high school who really knows what they want though. None of this really matters though because I am no longer socially awkward or overweight.

I'm no longer a size 14, I have more than the three friends that I did in high school, and I don't let what anyone else does or says effect me anymore because I gave one person that ability in high school and I now know better.

I, Bella Swan, am now the head editor at the Seattle Times. I got rid of everything that tied me down to my old life and started completely fresh.

So now I sit here with my two best friends in the whole world, Rosalie and Alice getting drinks at our favorite bar on Capitol Hill. It's a little place called La Spiga where they have great food and even better drinks.

Alice is sitting there telling Rose something about the new spring collection that her company, appropriately called Energy. Starting her own company was something that she had always wanted to start ever since she was young. When we became roommates in college it was all she could talk about.

I'm brought back to the here and now when Alice's voice rises as she obviously reaches the climax of her story.

"…So I told him that he should come back with a new design when it didn't look like it time traveled from the 1970's." They both laugh at this, but I have a feeling that I would have needed to listen to the rest of the conversation for this to make sense.

"Bella!"

I snap my head back in Rose's direction, "Huh?"

"Could you like try and pretend that you're having fun tonight?"

"I am having fun! I don't know what you're talking about."

Alice cut in at this point, "Bella, all you're doing is sitting there and staring off into space. You probably didn't even hear a single word of the conversation that Rose and I were having."

I rack my brain trying to remember anything that they had been talking about, but I come up empty. I smile sheepishly at Alice, "Sorry, I was just thinking about the past and how everything has changed so much."

Both of them were scowling at me. "What did I do?" I ask, confused.

Rose sighs, "Bella, you have to stop dwelling on the past. All of that has changed now, you're successful, you have amazing friends, if I do say so myself, and you are drop dead gorgeous."

I, of course, blush at her last comment. My blush was something I could never seem to get rid of or control so I have to deal with it on a day to day basis. "You guys really are great friends and I'm not dwelling on the past in a bad way. I'm just remembering how it was back then." I smile and hope that they'll drop the conversation once and for all.

It seems to work because both of them shrug and go back to their own conversations. I'm sure that I'm not off the hook, but I'll try not to worry about that right now.

I'm startled when Rosalie burst out, "Oh, I almost forgot!"

Alice and I both give her confused looks and Alice asks, "Almost forgot what?"

All of the sudden Rose looks at me and her expression turns sheepish. "Since it's my birthday this weekend, I thought we could all do something fun together, so…"

I furrow my brow, "So what, Rose?"

"I got all of us tickets to the Mariner's game this weekend."

My face drops and my frown deepens. Rose hurries to explain, "Bella, come on! You have to get over him. He was an asshole, but so what? Just because he plays on the team doesn't mean that you can't go to any of the games."

"He" was Edward Cullen. He was the pitcher for the Seattle Mariner's. He also, just so happens to be the one person who ruined high school for me. He was the last person that I ever let hurt me.

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AN - Thanks for reading! Leave me a review, but you don't have to.


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